The Pen, debuting Sunday on MLB Network, might be something like the 11,000th TV reality series.

But David Gavant of MLB Productions, which is producing the series, suggests it's unique: "It's the first reality series where a baseball team has allowed anybody to follow them through a season."

And follow them remotely. While MLBP has had crews hang around — on the field and off — with the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen since spring training, it also has put eavesdropping microphones around bullpen phones. And it placed in the Phillies bullpen a camera that's controlled from MLB Productions' offices in Secaucus, N.J.

Says Gavant: "It's a cool setup, almost like a video game, zooming in and zooming out."

So much for high jinks in the bullpen staying in the bullpen.

MLB Productions producer Danny Field, a former college catcher, got in on the action in spring training: He suited up, wearing a helmet-cam, to catch pitchers in the bullpen.

Like the NFL Films-produced Hard Knocks, which takes viewers into meetings and practices at NFL training camps, The Pen is getting unprecedented access. Gavant says the Phillies have been "very cooperative," including allowing cameras into meeting involving the front office and coaches. Said Gavant, when asked if film crews not on any league payrolls could ever get such access: "Good question. I don't know."

But, he says, there can't be sugarcoating: "We're making a reality show. We made it clear to the Phillies we have to have some conflict."

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